Enschede is a larger university city in the East of the Netherlands, close to the German border. With its population of about 160,000 it is the largest city of the province of Overijssel. The city’s main industry had long been textile production, but that collapsed in the 1970s and 80s. The former industrial city has re-invented itself and now focuses on research, innovation, education, culture and sport, but the city hasn’t lost its down to earth worker’s mentality.

Many cities in the Netherlands are compact and Enschede is no exception. Coupled with good policies for cycling this makes that cycling is an important means of transport in this city. In the Bicycle Vision of the city for the period 2012-2020 we find that Enschede choses consciously for sustainable mobility and tries to get people to make the shift to cycling to improve traffic safety and the liveability of especially the city centre.

This shift is needed. The same document reveals that for even very short journeys under 2km 35% of the people in Enschede take the car. Tucked away in a diagram is the finding that cycling in Enschede decreased when you compare 2007 with 2000. It fell from a little above average to below average for larger cities. That may sound worse than it is: about 34% of all journeys up to 7.5km are still made by bicycle.

From Enschede’s Cycle Vision, a picture showing examples that need to be updated to meet modern Dutch standards.

Enschede wants to increase that number to 40%. To reach that figure the city wants to improve the cycling climate, by improving infrastructure, increasing bicycle parking places and by reducing theft. There is an array of measures with regard to the improvement of infrastructure. For instance by unbundling new cycle routes from the main routes from motor traffic and by improving existing infrastructure to meet modern standards. (See picture above, that shows what that means.)

For the entire Cycle Vision Enschede sets aside 9 million Euro and that doesn’t include larger projects that would eat the budget too much, but only the “ordinary” updating measures.

Enschede had been a pioneer with new cycling measures in the past, but cycling got a little bit less attention in more recent years, which may explain the decrease of the modal share. In the early 1990s Enschede was the first city that gave cyclists priority on roundabouts. This concept that I wrote about a lot already has since been adopted in the entire country and is now standard policy in most of the Netherlands.

Simultaneous green was invented in Enschede. It works only under specific conditions, if those are not met there is no advantage in this system. (Picture courtesy of Fietsersbond)

Enschede is also the birth place of cycle traffic lights that are green for all directions at the same time while motor traffic is stopped entirely. On my visit to Enschede it was the first time I really experienced what it is like to be cycling left through an all directions green junction. This ten year old concept is not something that has widely spread so far. I know Groningen and Assen have it and I saw it in Beverwijk, but in the larger cities in the west I have not yet seen it. That may have to do with the recommendations of the Dutch Cyclists’ Union for “simultaneous green” junctions. It really only works on compact junctions where not all directions have separate green cycles already. There shouldn’t be a higher volume than 25,000 vehicles per day and from all directions at least 10% of cyclists have to make a left turn. The all directions green has to take place twice per full cycle to make it preferable over a ‘normal’ Dutch junction with cycle tracks all around the junction. The main advantage is then that you can quickly make a left turn. It seems to be popular where people are used to it. I am not, and I did not like it, it felt “messy”.

A car passing close and fast while I cycle on a cycle lane in Enschede. The lane becomes a track at the junction. Why not have tracks all the way?

What I also disliked very much was the fondness for cycle lanes in Enschede. I was surprised to see newly reconstructed arterial roads with cycle lanes. Even when they are 2 metres wide, car traffic passes you much closer than when you cycle on a separated cycle track. It was good to see the lanes changed to tracks right before most junctions, but I do not understand cycle lanes. For lanes to be good and safe they need just as much space as separated cycle tracks and those have a far greater feeling of subjective safety, so why not opt for those?

Cycle lanes complicate junction design. This ‘mini-track’ for a left turn is needlessly complicated and thus unused by most cyclists (hence also the debris). They simply use the left-turn lane for motor traffic.

Cycle lanes have many disadvantages. They can be invaded by motor traffic either legally when they have to cross them to park, or illegally when they park inside the lanes. With cycle lanes junction design becomes needlessly complicated to a point where people choose to ignore the design altogether. A left turning track I saw was ignored by all cyclists I saw turning left. And I understand them completely.

With its Cycle Vision Enschede commits fully to cycling again, and the best example of new infrastructure in Enschede must be the high-speed regional cycle track that starts in Enschede and that will be 60 kilometres long. I have shown you this amazing route before as well.

So will this bring Enschede the title of Best Cycling City in the Netherlands? To be honest, I have my doubts. But who knows?

I’ve lived in Groningen for four years. It took me about a week to get used to simultaneous green, but after that I was sold. You don’t have to wait so long to be able to cross and you can take a direct left. It feels much safer, as all cars have to wait (no chance of a right hook accident). It might feel messy at first, but everyone is able to negotiate the conflicts that might arise. In four years I’ve cycled daily and I can’t remember seeing any collisions.

Recently I moved back to Amsterdam. I truly miss the simultaneous green junctions. Although in some places the lights for a left turn are timed with the other lights, so you don’t slow down for a left turn, this is hardly anywhere when you get closer to the city center.

Thank you Mark for providing this overview of all the Fietsstad awards candidate cities for 2014. It is immensely insightful for us overseas and helps us understand what is going on in the Netherlands as your country continues to lead the way in developing & implementing the world’s best cycling infrastructure.

Mark, I can understand your uncertainty given the relative lack of familiarity but in my experience, Simultaneous Green junctions actually work extremely well even on some of the largest junctions in Groningen. In fact, they work better in some ways than on the smaller junctions because cyclists have an even larger area to use to cross the junction, more space in which to spread out, more space for faster to overtake slower etc. Due to the extra space, collisions (I’ve never actually ever observed one) are even less likely. There are a couple of examples of large SG junctions on my blog. Both are junctions I’ve used many times, both extremely successful in operation.

Enschede has certainly been quite innovative, but I certainly agree with you on their cycle-lanes being inadequate. From what I can see, change hasn’t been huge in the eight years or so since we did most of our riding there. Enschede was one of the places which we considered making our home. We visited, rode around, even viewed houses. We liked much of what we saw, but in our opinion their cycling infrastructure was not a high point for a Dutch city. This is a large part of why we chose Assen instead. Cycling is considerably easier here.

Assen cannot win the competition because it doesn’t enter. I’ve discussed this with people in local government, who replied that they’d rather concentrate on building better infrastructure than boasting. I can’t argue with that.

Readers should be aware that “best cycling city” is awarded as a result of a subjective process by a campaigning organisation. It’s also limited by who enters. The result is a reflection of who of those cities which entered is trying hardest rather than of which city has the best overall results.

Personally, I think the correct decision was made. It does no good at all for cycle campaigning organisations to be uncritical. We need to strive for ever better conditions for cycling, here in the Netherlands just as elsewhere. Fietsersbond is a successful organisation because they are willing to criticise and the Fietsstad competition is a part of this.

But foreign observers should bear in mind what this competition actually is. The Fietsstad award is an internal affair. The city which wins it is not necessarily the best place for campaigners outside the Netherlands to look for inspiration from outside the Netherlands.

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